Abdullah Çatli
Encyclopedia
Abdullah Çatlı was a Turkish
convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla
. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP). His death in the Susurluk car crash
, while travelling in a car with state officials revealed the depth of the state's complicity in organized crime
.
, a small province in Central Anatolia, Çatlı was familiar with the views of the far right
MHP, and Turkish ultra-nationalists. He was a hit man for the state, ordered to kill suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) and the ASALA
.
Çatlı is claimed to be responsible, along with Haluk Kırcı, of the 9 October 1978 Bahçelievler Massacre
during which seven university students, members of the Workers Party of Turkey
(TIP), were murdered. He is further said to have helped Mehmet Ali Ağca
murder the left-wing newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi
on 1 January 1979, in Istanbul
, and helped Ağca escape from an Istanbul military prison, in 1979.
According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar
, Abdullah Çatlı "reportedly helped organize Agca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Catli was even involved in the 1981 Pope's assassination attempt
". In 1998 the magazine Monde diplomatique alleged that Abdullah Çatlı had organized the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German mark
" for the Grey Wolves
. In 1985 in Rome, Catli declared to a judge "that he had been contacted by the BND
, the German intelligence agency, promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope".
Çatlı was seen in the company of Stefano Delle Chiaie
, an Italian neofascist who worked for Gladio
, a secret NATO stay-behind
paramilitary organization, while "touring Latin America, and on a visit to Miami in September 1982". He then went to France, where, under the alias of Hasan Kurtoglu, he planned a series of attacks on Armenian interests and on the ASALA
, including the blowing up of the Armenian monument at Alfortville
on 3 May 1984 and the attempted murder of activist Ara Toronian.
According to founding Counter-Guerrilla
Alparslan Türkeş
, the founder of the Grey Wolves, "Çatlı has co-operated in the frame of a secret service working for the well-being of the state".
Turkish intelligence service (MIT
) paid Çatli in heroin, and he was eventually arrested in Paris on 24 October 1984 for drug trafficking. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and in 1988 he was handed over to Switzerland, where he was also wanted on charges of drug dealing. However, he escaped in March 1990 with the assistance of mysterious accomplices. He returned to Turkey, and was then recruited by the police for "special missions" while he was officially being sought by the Turkish authorities for murder.
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller
declared on 4 October 1993: "We know the list of businessmen and artists subjected to racketeering by the PKK and we shall be bringing their members to account." Beginning on 14 January 1994, almost a hundred people were kidnapped by commandos wearing uniforms and travelling in police vehicles and then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul. Çatli demanded money from people who were on "Çiller’s list", promising to get their names removed. One of his victims, Behçet Canturk, was to pay ten million dollars, to which Casino King Omer Luftu Topal added a further seventeen million. However, after receiving the money, he then went on to have them kidnapped and killed, and sometimes tortured beforehand.
, a town in the province of Balıkesir
. With him in the car were Hüseyin Kocadağ (a famous police officer), Sedat Bucak (a Member of Parliament of the True Path Party
(DYP) for Şanlıurfa
province), and Gonca Us (Abdullah Çatlı's girlfriend, a beauty queen-turned-mafia hitwoman
). Sedat Bucak, a Kurdish warlord and village guards leader, was the sole person to survive the crash. His militia, funded by the Turkish state, was active against the PKK. The Susurluk scandal
exposed the "deep state
"; the underbelly of the government that some had dismissed as a paranoid conspiracy theory.
At the time of his death, Çatlı was a convicted fugitive, who had been wanted for drug trafficking and murder. The mafia chiefs of the Grey Wolves
, and its infamous hit man Mehmet Ali Ağca
, paid tribute at his funeral by presenting wreaths, as is traditional in Turkey. Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu
of the far right Great Union Party
was also present.
. Çatlı had a brother, Zeki. He married his neighbor Meral Aydoğan on 10 August 1974. On 22 May 1975 they had a daughter named Gökçen, who is currently a doctoral student in politics and international relations. Later he had another daughter, Selcen.
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
convicted drug trafficker, and contract killer for the Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
. He led the youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party
Nationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party , is a far-right political party in Turkey.In the 2002 general elections, the party had lost its 129 seats as it had won only 8.34% of the national vote...
(MHP). His death in the Susurluk car crash
Susurluk scandal
The Susurluk scandal was a scandal involving the close relationship between the Turkish government, the armed forces, and organized crime. It took place during the peak of the Turkey–Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict, in the mid-1990s...
, while travelling in a car with state officials revealed the depth of the state's complicity in organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
.
Career
Growing up in NevşehirNevsehir
Nevşehir, formerly Muşkara, , is a city and the capital district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. According to the 2010 census, population of the district is 117,890 of which 85,634 631 live in the city of Nevşehir...
, a small province in Central Anatolia, Çatlı was familiar with the views of the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
MHP, and Turkish ultra-nationalists. He was a hit man for the state, ordered to kill suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers Party
Kurdistan Workers Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party , commonly known as PKK, also known as KGK and formerly known as KADEK or KONGRA-GEL , is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and greater cultural and political rights...
(PKK) and the ASALA
Asala
Asala may refer to:* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization.* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer* Al Asalah, a Salafist political party in Bahrain...
.
Çatlı is claimed to be responsible, along with Haluk Kırcı, of the 9 October 1978 Bahçelievler Massacre
Bahçelievler massacre
The Bahçelievler incident is the name given to the events of October 9, 1978 in Bahçelievler, Ankara, Turkey, when seven university students, members of the Turkish Workers' Party, were assassinated by neo-fascists including Grey Wolves' leader Abdullah Çatlı, and Haluk Kırcı...
during which seven university students, members of the Workers Party of Turkey
Workers Party of Turkey
Workers Party of Turkey was a Turkish political party, founded in 1961. It became the first socialist party in Turkey to win representation in the national parliament. It was banned twice and eventually merged with the Communist Party of Turkey in 1988.TİP was founded by a group of labor union...
(TIP), were murdered. He is further said to have helped Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
murder the left-wing newspaper editor Abdi İpekçi
Abdi Ipekçi
Abdi İpekçi was a Turkish journalist, intellectual and an activist for human rights. He was murdered while editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet.-Biography:...
on 1 January 1979, in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, and helped Ağca escape from an Istanbul military prison, in 1979.
According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar
Lucy Komisar
Lucy Komisar is a New York City-based investigative journalist. She writes about offshore banking, corporate secrecy, international money laundering, and how they relate to corporate fraud; international corruption; the looting by dictators; financing of terrorism; international crime including...
, Abdullah Çatlı "reportedly helped organize Agca's escape from an Istanbul military prison, and some have suggested Catli was even involved in the 1981 Pope's assassination attempt
1981 Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter's Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and critically wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck 4 times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was...
". In 1998 the magazine Monde diplomatique alleged that Abdullah Çatlı had organized the assassination attempt "in exchange for the sum of 3 million German mark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
" for the Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
. In 1985 in Rome, Catli declared to a judge "that he had been contacted by the BND
Bundesnachrichtendienst
The Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...
, the German intelligence agency, promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope".
Çatlı was seen in the company of Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie
Stefano Delle Chiaie is a neofascist Italian activist . He went on to become a wanted man worldwide, suspect to be involved in Italy's strategy of tension, but was acquitted. He was a friend of Licio Gelli, grandmaster of P2 masonic lodge...
, an Italian neofascist who worked for Gladio
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II. Its purpose was to continue anti-communist actions in the event of a shift to a Communist party led government...
, a secret NATO stay-behind
Stay-behind
In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organisations in its own territory, for use in the event that the territory is overrun by an enemy. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement, or would act as spies from behind enemy lines...
paramilitary organization, while "touring Latin America, and on a visit to Miami in September 1982". He then went to France, where, under the alias of Hasan Kurtoglu, he planned a series of attacks on Armenian interests and on the ASALA
Asala
Asala may refer to:* Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia, a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla organization.* Asalah Nasri, Syrian singer* Al Asalah, a Salafist political party in Bahrain...
, including the blowing up of the Armenian monument at Alfortville
Alfortville
Alfortville is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-History:The commune of Alfortville was created on 1 April 1885 by detaching its territory from the commune of Maisons-Alfort.-Transport:...
on 3 May 1984 and the attempted murder of activist Ara Toronian.
According to founding Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla
Counter-Guerrilla is the Turkish branch of Operation Gladio, a clandestine stay-behind anti-communist initiative backed by the United States as an expression of the Truman Doctrine. The founding goal of the operation was to erect a guerrilla force capable of countering a possible Soviet invasion...
Alparslan Türkeş
Alparslan Türkes
Alparslan Türkeş was a Cypriot-born Turkish nationalist politician who was the founder and former president of the Nationalist Movement Party party...
, the founder of the Grey Wolves, "Çatlı has co-operated in the frame of a secret service working for the well-being of the state".
Turkish intelligence service (MIT
National Intelligence Organization
The National Intelligence Organization is the governmental intelligence organization of Turkey. It was established in 1965 to replace the National Security Service....
) paid Çatli in heroin, and he was eventually arrested in Paris on 24 October 1984 for drug trafficking. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and in 1988 he was handed over to Switzerland, where he was also wanted on charges of drug dealing. However, he escaped in March 1990 with the assistance of mysterious accomplices. He returned to Turkey, and was then recruited by the police for "special missions" while he was officially being sought by the Turkish authorities for murder.
Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller
Tansu Çiller
Tansu Penbe Çiller is a Turkish economist and politician. She was Turkey's first and only female Prime Minister.- Early career :She is the daughter of a Turkish governor of Bilecik province during the 1950s. She graduated from the School of Economics at Robert College after finishing the American...
declared on 4 October 1993: "We know the list of businessmen and artists subjected to racketeering by the PKK and we shall be bringing their members to account." Beginning on 14 January 1994, almost a hundred people were kidnapped by commandos wearing uniforms and travelling in police vehicles and then killed somewhere along the road from Ankara to Istanbul. Çatli demanded money from people who were on "Çiller’s list", promising to get their names removed. One of his victims, Behçet Canturk, was to pay ten million dollars, to which Casino King Omer Luftu Topal added a further seventeen million. However, after receiving the money, he then went on to have them kidnapped and killed, and sometimes tortured beforehand.
Death
Çatlı died in a car accident on 3 November 1996 in SusurlukSusurluk
Susurluk is a small town and a district of Balıkesir Province in northwestern Turkey. It is famous for its production soap and dairy products.İstanbul-İzmir road passes through Susurluk. Susurluk is known for its toasted sandwich with tomato paste and its bubbly ayran. The population is 23,995...
, a town in the province of Balıkesir
Balikesir
Balıkesir is the capital city of Balıkesir Province. Balıkesir is in the Marmara region of Turkey and has a population of 265,747 inhabitants. Old name is Karesi or Karasi.- History :...
. With him in the car were Hüseyin Kocadağ (a famous police officer), Sedat Bucak (a Member of Parliament of the True Path Party
True Path Party
The Democratic Party , abbreviated to DP, is a centre-right, conservative Turkish political party, established by Suleyman Demirel in 1983 as the Right Path Party...
(DYP) for Şanlıurfa
Sanliurfa
Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language , in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323 inhabitants Şanlıurfa, , often simply known as Urfa in daily language (Syriac ܐܘܪܗܝ Urhoy,Armenian Ուռհա Owr'ha, Arabic الرها ar-Ruhā), in ancient times Edessa, is a city with 482,323...
province), and Gonca Us (Abdullah Çatlı's girlfriend, a beauty queen-turned-mafia hitwoman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
). Sedat Bucak, a Kurdish warlord and village guards leader, was the sole person to survive the crash. His militia, funded by the Turkish state, was active against the PKK. The Susurluk scandal
Susurluk scandal
The Susurluk scandal was a scandal involving the close relationship between the Turkish government, the armed forces, and organized crime. It took place during the peak of the Turkey–Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict, in the mid-1990s...
exposed the "deep state
Deep state
The Deep state is alleged to be a group of influential anti-democratic coalitions within the Turkish political system, composed of high-level elements within the intelligence services , Turkish military, security, judiciary, and mafia. The notion of deep state is similar to that of a "state within...
"; the underbelly of the government that some had dismissed as a paranoid conspiracy theory.
At the time of his death, Çatlı was a convicted fugitive, who had been wanted for drug trafficking and murder. The mafia chiefs of the Grey Wolves
Grey Wolves
The Idealist Youth , commonly known as Grey Wolves , is an ultra-nationalist neo-fascist youth organization. It is accused of terrorism. According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders between 1974–1980.-Name:...
, and its infamous hit man Mehmet Ali Ağca
Mehmet Ali Agca
Mehmet Ali Ağca is a Turkish assassin who murdered left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi on February 1, 1979 and later shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981, after escaping from a Turkish prison. After serving 19 years of imprisonment in Italy, he was deported to Turkey, where he served a...
, paid tribute at his funeral by presenting wreaths, as is traditional in Turkey. Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu
Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu
Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu was a Turkish politician and member of the Parliament of Turkey. He was the leader and founder of the Great Union Party , a right-wing, nationalist political party....
of the far right Great Union Party
Great Union Party
The Great Union Party is a nationalist political party in Turkey, created on January 29, 1993. It is considered to be close to the Grey Wolves organization, and is related to the "Alperen Ocakları" tendency, which operated a synthesis between Islamism and Turkish Nationalism, and separated itself...
was also present.
Abdullah Çatlı in fiction
- Bruce SterlingBruce SterlingMichael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
's 2000 novel Zeitgeist includes a major character ("Mehmet Ozbey") loosely based on Çatlı.
Personal life
Çatlı's father was named Ahmet Çatlıoğlu; the "-oğlu" suffix is a patronymicPatronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
. Çatlı had a brother, Zeki. He married his neighbor Meral Aydoğan on 10 August 1974. On 22 May 1975 they had a daughter named Gökçen, who is currently a doctoral student in politics and international relations. Later he had another daughter, Selcen.